This Is an Absolutely Brilliant Idea

This isn't really political, but I read about this, and I had to comment on how genius the idea behind it is.

Specifically, it is a DARPA "contest" to get people to design a next gen amphibious personnel carrier for the Marine Corps using some online design tools. Ok, the vehicle contest itself is only mildly interesting in my opinion. But what really intrigued me was the idea of opening up to the public the ability to use a design tool program to come up with ideas for something.

Not just military use...anything. Think about it...what makes this country so special? Our ability to innovate. What a program like this does is, instead of just relying on the traditional "usual suspects" of military-industrial companies that have a long track record of going over budget and making an end product that never quite lives up to expectations, here's an opportunity for brilliant people outside of that industry to use basically the same skills, in a free way, to think of things "outside the box".

And win money doing it.

Do I think that someone will come up with the next big thing with this? Probably not. But I can almost guarantee that an ongoing, more generalized program like this could yield specific ideas which would make it onto the battlefield, or into other areas.

Because, if you give the American public the chance to innovate...they'll do it. And they'll completely surprise you in the process.